… but I'd still be friends with me.

As If.

“Dream as if you’ll live forever…” – James Dean

Besides the phrase ‘as if’ being from one of the GREATEST, OSCAR-WINNING MOVIES OF ALL TIME (1995’s Clueless), it appears the two little words have big significance in teaching me something about life.

Today’s lesson, according to Beattie, is to act “as if.” Or, put another way, to fake it til you make it.

I practice this sometimes, but surely not often enough. In fact, I get so wrapped up in my own destructiveness that acting as if doesn’t even register on the radar.

Right now, for example:

I could act as if I really want to go run outside when it’s rainy. cold. snowy. No, I really do.

I could act as if I’m starving for all of the salad ingredients that are currently lonely and bored in my fridge.

I could act as if I don’t need to go to Starbucks for a caffeine fix.

I could act as if there is nothing more delicious than water.

I could act as if the things that are really inconsequential – the ones that I don’t realize are stupid until later – are stupid. Right now. Today. This minute.

I could act as if I’m pretty happy with myself.

I could act as if I could act?

And, just because I mentioned it so now I have to… I close with this quote from the GREATEST, OSCAR-WINNING MOVIE OF ALL TIME: “So okay. I don’t want to be a traitor to my generation and all, but I don’t get how guys dress today. I mean, come on, it looks like they just fell out of bed and put on some baggy pants and take their greasy hair – EW! – and cover it up with a backwards cap, and like, we’re expected to swoon? I don’t think so!”